Spotlight: Mirroring Faith—Lessons from a Jewish-Catholic Student Exchange

Each year, our seventh-grade students participate in a demonstration and lesson plan quite different from their typical Jewish programming. A visit across campuses, a shared lesson, a few hours spent together. But over time, we can show how this exchange has become something much more meaningful, a shared teaching between Jewish and Catholic students. Through our longstanding interfaith partnership with St. Nicholas Catholic School, now in its third year in its current form and part of a program that spans nearly two decades, our students are engaging in a living exploration of faith, identity, and connection. 

In this program, represented by Hausner's Aviv Matzkin and Ellen Jewel at St. Nicholas, the structure is intentional. Twice a year, students come together around moments in the calendar that hold deep religious meaning: winter holidays at St. Nicholas and the spring season of Passover and Easter at Hausner. They study, they ask questions, and they begin to see both the parallels and distinctions that shape their respective traditions. Many of these students already know one another from sports teams and shared community spaces, but this program invites them into a different kind of conversation–one rooted in values, traditions, and belief systems that are rarely explored side by side. 

During the winter exchange, our students visit St. Nicholas to learn about Christmas, its narratives, symbols, and traditions, and to teach them about Hannukkah. Students question whether these holidays are echoing one another, or are they independent expressions that riff on a similar theme? They explore symbolism and find meaning in details they hadn’t noticed before. One student even recognized that the colors on one favorite Christmas treat, the candy cane, have interwoven colors that represent sacrifice and purity. The students notice that while both traditions include stories of sacrifice, they do so in ways that reflect fundamentally different theological frameworks. 

In the spring, the conversations continue and shift to Passover and Easter. As students study the holidays, they encounter both striking similarities and meaningful differences. Shared symbols such as the presence of eggs in ceremonial contexts, and the trace overarching narratives of winter giving away into spring, of hardships transitioning into renewal. Through text study, they examine excerpts from the Haggadah alongside passages from Matthew describing a Passover meal, where they form connections that are as intellectually engaging as they are personally resonant. Another student insight linked the Passover story of marking the doorposts from sacrifice to the Christian story of Jesus being sacrificed on a wooden cross. This moment showcases the thoughtful, unscripted learning that defines this experience. 

Many of the lasting moments from the trip happen outside of the formal lesson. They unfold over lunch and recess, during the unstructured moments where students simply spend time together. We see students exchanging phone numbers, making plans to stay in touch, and consistently asking when they will be able to do this again. 

At its core, this program is not only about understanding another faith. It is about strengthening our own sense of identity while recognizing the humanity and kindness in community. In today’s world, where differences are often emphasized before common ground is even considered, creating space for this kind of encounter feels not only valuable but essential. For our students, the takeaway is clear: the communities around them are not abstract or distant. They are made up of peers, neighbors, and potential friends. In building these connections, we are modeling something we hope students carry forward–that a strong, values-based education does not exist in isolation. Community strengthens with dialogue, through curiosity, and through the willingness to engage thoughtfully with the world beyond our own beliefs.